Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 73252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
A dark, smoky shape tears free from her body.
For the first time, I see him without a human face. Not clearly. Just an outline. Something massive and wrong. I take whatever power remains inside me and throw it at him. I bring my hands together and then rip them apart, like tearing something open from the inside.
The shadow bursts. Black smoke explodes around us, and the smell of sulfur becomes overwhelming. Vaelric lets out a screech that seems to vibrate through my bones.
Then he disappears.
Vivian lies motionless on the ground.
“Is he dead?” Claire asks.
Her voice is barely above a whisper.
“No.”
I stare at the empty space where he stood. “Just gone.” My hands fall to my sides. Then I look at Vivian. Claire follows my gaze.
“She died?” she asks quietly. I don’t answer immediately. Because she saw. She saw everything.
“Yes.” Behind me, my brothers start to move. I immediately drop to my knees beside them. My body is shaking like I just downed twelve shots of espresso. For some ridiculous reason, part of me thinks I can get them awake and out of here before they see Vivian. Obviously, I can’t.
Leo wakes first and he sees her. My heart hurts for him and guilt ripples through me.
“Mom?” He scrambles across the pavement and pulls Vivian into his arms. Claire’s eyes dart toward me. Then toward Leo.
“The demon killed her,” she says quickly. I look at her, eyes wide. She’s lying on my behalf. “Wren tried to stop him.”
Leo cradles Vivian against his chest and starts crying. Antonio is slower to sit up. When he sees her, something in his face goes completely blank. For a moment, he just stares. Then the leader in him takes over. Probably some kind of coping mechanism. It’ll hit him later. Right now, we need to survive.
“Vaelric isn’t dead,” I say. “He turned into smoke and disappeared.”
Antonio blinks rapidly. I catch the tears in his eyes before he looks away. “We need to go.”
“And just leave her?” Leo chokes out.
Antonio’s expression cracks. “Yes.” His voice breaks. “The Order will find her.” He swallows hard. “They’ll give her a proper hunter’s funeral.”
Claire gets shakily to her feet and moves behind me. She looks at me differently now. Maybe with awe. Maybe fear. Honestly, both would be reasonable. I hate that she had to see any of this. But more than anything, I hate the Order for putting all of us here in the first place. Antonio hooks an arm around Leo and forces him to his feet.
Then we run.
No one says anything.
We don’t stop until we’re several blocks away where Antonio calls for the car. We go straight to the airport. Claire, who just watched me fight the demon that’s been tormenting her for weeks, has apparently decided she trusts me. Or she’s terrified of me. Again, both are fair. We board the plane as quickly as possible.
I stare out the window at the tarmac while we wait to leave. Every passing second feels like the Pittsburgh police are about to race onto the runway and drag me off in handcuffs. I don’t really breathe until we’re in the air. The flight home is the most tense, uncomfortable plane ride of my life.
Nobody talks much. Leo stares out the window. Antonio keeps rubbing his hands over his face. Claire eventually falls asleep. And I sit there with Vivian’s last heartbeat still echoing in my head.
I don’t know if I killed her. No. That’s a lie. I do know. I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do with that knowledge. We’re descending toward Charlotte when something slams against the side of the plane.
Claire jumps.
“What the hell was that?” Antonio asks.
A moment later, the pilot’s voice comes over the speaker.
“Sorry, folks. Looks like a bird flew into us on approach.”
“Jesus Christ,” Antonio mutters, pinching the bridge of his nose.
It feels like another hour before the plane finally comes to a stop. The door opens.
And Xavier is there, waiting for me. My heart leaps painfully in my chest at the sight of him.
I turn toward Claire and offer her my hand as we descend the stairs.
“Oh.” Claire suddenly tugs me sideways and runs to the bird on the ground. “It was a goose.”